The Role of Nurses in the Reclassification Exercise of the Japan Disaster Relief Search and Rescue Team (the JDR Rescue Team)

Abstract

Introduction:

The JDR Rescue Team has successfully completed the INSARAG External Re-Classification (IER) process, which evaluates the operational capability and capacity of Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams and has achieved the highest “Heavy” reclassification in November 2022. Two nurses participated in the IER process as part of the medical unit of JDR Rescue Team. In addition, ten registered nurses cooperated as Exercise Control (EXCON).

Method:

Summarize the JDR Rescue Team and medical unit and make observations on what nurses did in the IER.

Results:

The JDR Rescue Team is dispatched by the Government of Japan in response to large-scale disasters overseas. The task force team has 75 members from various specialties, including the rescuer, and medical unit. The medical unit consists of one medical manager, 2 doctors, and two nurses. There are currently about 50 registered medical unit members in our team, and of these, a total of 23 nurses are registered. The role of nurses during the IER process, includes a 36-hour non-stop scenario-based exercise. The team nurses are involved in various roles, such as Confined Space Medicine (infusion for patients, assisting on-site amputation), caring or treating injured rescuers and search dogs, providing health and welfare monitoring and operating a decontamination system. The EXCON nurses were involved in managing the simulation. One of their key roles was to play as a victim realistically so as to provide a sense of tension for the simulation.

Conclusion:

The JDR Rescue Team has more medical unit members than those in other countries. In particular, teams with so many nurses are rare. nurses played a vital role in this IER. The contribution of nurses is identified in order to make the international USAR team more strong and more flexible.